UC-NRLF 


PUBLIC 
SOUND  MONEY  LEAFLET. 


THE  MONEY  QUESTION. 


J.  STERLING    ]VK)RTON'S    TALK   ABOUT    IT    TO  •  HIS 
FRIENDS   AND    NEIGHBORS. 


A  Plain  Exposition  of  the  Issue   Made  by  a  Western 

Pioneer  in  Close  Touch  with*the  Farmers  and 

One  Who  Understands  Their  Needs. 


Printed  for  free  distribution  by  the  PUBLIC  LEDGER,  PHILADELPHIA,  PA. 

GEO.  W.  CHILDS  DREXEL, 


EDITOR  AND  PUBLISHER. 


9 

Re-issued  by  the  Pennsylvania  State  Committee  of  the 
National  Democratic  (Jeffersonian)  Party.  751  Bullitt  Building, 
Philadelphia,  Penna. 


A 


Introduction. 


At  the  request  of  his  fellow-citizens  of  all  political  parties 
Hon.  J.  Sterling  Morton,  Secretary  of  Agriculture,  while  on  a  visit 
to  his  home  at  Nebraska  City,  Nebraska,  addressed  them  on  the 
evening  of  August  1st,  on  the  Money  Question.  Few  rn£n  are  better 
qualified  than  Mr.  Morton  to  discuss  the  question  of  the  relation  of  a 
sound  currency  to  the  national  prosperity.  He  has  been  intimately 
associated  with  agricultural  conditions  for  more  than  forty  years  in 
the  State  of  Nebraska,  of  which  he  was  one  of  the  earliest  pioneers. 
During  that  long  period  of  time,  he  has  been  known  as  one  of  the 
most  active  citizens  of  the  West  in  every  political  campaign,  in  which 
questions  of  great  national  concern  and  interest  were  under  discussion. 
With  no  political  ambitions  of  his  own  to  subserve,  and  belonging 
always  to  minority  party  in  his  State  and  section,  his  voice  has  been 
effectively  heard  and  his  pen  has  been  effectively  employed,  whenever 
and  as  often  as  the  occasion  required,  in  advocating  what  he  believed 
to  be  for  the  best  interests  of  the  people  and  the  Government.  A 
practical  and  successful  farmer  himself,  he  has  always  been  specially 
solicitous  for  the  material  advancement  of  agriculture  and  the  moral 
betterment  of  the  farmer.  He  has  never  descended  to  the  tricks  oi 
the  demagogue,  and  has  consistently  and  persistently  adhered  to  his 
convictions,  based  upon  extensive  reading  and  close  study,  on 
economic  questions.  The  Money  Question  has  been  given  by 
Mr.  Morton  the  most  patient  investigation  and  the  most  careful  and 
conscientious  study,  and  his  utterances  therefore  on  this  question, 
which  is  now  occupying  the  popular  mind  almost  to  the  exclusion  of 
all  other  public  questions,  is  worthy  of  greater  than  the  ordinary 
attention  given  its  discussion.  In  his  Nebraska  City  speech- 
Mr.  Morton,  starting  with  the  origin  of  money  as  a  medium  of 
exchange  and  a  measure  of  value,  follows  the  use  of  the  two  metals 
to  our  own  day,  and  clearly  shows  that  values  cannot  be  fixed  by 
legislation  nor  two  monetary  standards  of  values  maintained  by  law. 

Mr.  Morton's  speech  was  published  in  the  PUBLIC  LEDGER  of 
August  2  ist,  from  which  it  is  reproduced  in  pamphlet  form.  After 
explaining  .his  early  identification  with  Nebraska,  and  briefly  discuss- 
ing local  topics,  he  launched  into  the  subject  of  his  address  and  spoke 
as  follows: 


The  Money  Question. 

In  a  barbaric  state  man  neither  issued  coin  nor  credit  money.  Barter 
prevailed.  But  emerging  from  savagery  in  all  climes  and  in  all  countries 
humanity  has  begun  a  civilized  career  by  the  means  of  trade.  Generally  the 
money  of  any  people  a^the  dawn  of  its  civilization  has  been  made  out  of  some 
staple  product  common  to  their  latitude.  Thus  salt,  tea,  tobacco,  peltry  of 
various  kinds  and  shells  have  been  used  as  a  medium  of  exchange  and 
measures  of  value.  The  earliest  record  of  money,  however,  is  found  in  the 
Homeric*  age,  and  dates  about  800  years  before  the  Christian  era.  The  Iliad 
and  the  Odyssy  both  show  that  the  cow  and  the  ox  were  the  unit  of  value  in 
those  times  ;  thus  the  shield  of  Achilles  is  said  to  have  cost  so  many  oxen  and 
that  of  another  hero  to  have  cost  so  many  more.  But  in  no  instance  is  there 
any  record  of  an  attempt  to  create  money,  even  by  semi-civilized  people,  out 
of  something  which  had  no  value  as  a  commodity.  Nor  is  there  any  attempt 
recorded  where  the  early  moneys  have  been  forced  upon  the  people  at  a  mint 
value  greater  than  the  commodity  value  which  it  had  before  it  became  money. 
But  the  Homeric  or  Grecian  cow  was  by  some  sort  of  conspiracy  demonetized 
more  than  2500  years  ago. 

THE  GOIvD  BUG  OF  ANTIQUITY. 

The  gold  bugs  of  that  early  epoch  devised  a  coin  which  was  minted  at 
Athens  which  was  called  the  Grecian  talent  and  bore  upon  it  the  image  of  a 
cow.  How  long  the  parity  of  the  cow  and  the  gold  talent  was  maintained  it  is 
now  impossible  to  state.  But  for  many  years  that  gold  piece  was  taken  as  the 
equivalent  of  the  ox  or  the  cow,  and  it  is  barely  possible  that  the  subsidiary 
currency  of  these  times  consisted  of  calves  and  yearlings.  From  this  first 
money  we  deduce  the  word  "  capital."  The  owner  of  the  greatest  number  of 
bovinefc  counted  the  greatest  number  of  heads  of  cattle,  and  from  the  word 
"caput,"  meaning  a  head,  is  derived  the  modern  word  "capital."  Thus  it  is 
obvious  that  even  in  the  very  dawn  of  commerce  it  was  essential  that  money 
should  represent  or  possess  actual  value,  and  that  the  commodity  made  into 
money  was  not  enhanced  by  transmutation  at  the  mint  from  merchandise 
to  money. 

EARIvY  CURRENCIES. 

Originally  the  gold  pieces  of  Greece  bore  the  assay  stamp  of  the  goldsmith, 
and  later  on,  for  convenience,  it  was  determined  that  only  Government  itself 
should  certify  to  the  weight  and  fineness  of  each  piece.  Thus,  the  certification 
of  weight  and  fineness  of  metals  used  in  making  exchanges  in  money  by 
governments  was  brought  into  existence.  The  functions  of  money  are  merely 
to  measure  value  and  to  mediate  exchanges.  The  Pagan  philosopher,  Aristotle, 
who  wrote  400  years  before  Christ,  said:  "Money  is  an  intermediary  com- 
modity designed  to  facilitate  the  exchange  of  two  other  commodities.  Thus 
the  necessity  of  commodity  value  in  money  was  recognized  from  the  very  be- 
ginning.  This  word '  'value"  is  the  foundation  of  the  question  under  discussion. 
Among  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  and  among  modern  political  economists,  like 
Adam  Smiih,  Whately,  Say,  Bonamy  Price,  Perry  and  McLeod,  value  is  held 
to  consist  in  exchangeability.  ,  And  McLeod  remarks:  "What  does  exchange- 
ability depend  upon  ?  If  I  offer  something  for  sale  what  is  necessary  in  order 
that  it  should  be  sold?  Simply  that  some  one  else  should  desire  and  demand 
it.  *  *  *  The  sole  origin,  source  and  cause  of  value  is  human  desire  ;  when 
there  is  a  demand  for  things  they  have  value.  When  the  supply  remains 
stationary  and  the  demand  increases,  the  value  increases.  When  the  demand 
decreases,  the  value  decreases,  and  when  the  demand  ceases  altogether  the 
value  is  altogether  gone." 

PROTESTING  AGAINST  BEING  FUW,Y  PAID. 

This  shows  clearly  that  the  currency  of  a  people  must  be  readily  exchange- 
able for  those  things  which  the  people  desire  and  demand.  The  currency 
itself  must  be  desirable,  and  must  be  demanded  by  those  who  have  things  to 
sell.  The  farmer  who  sells  cattle,  swine  and  cereals  for  money  finds  that  his 
customer  demands  the  highest  possible  quality  -in  each  of  these  things.  The 
buyer  of  the  farmer's  products  is  a  seller  of  money.  The  seller  of  those  same 


products  is  a  buyer  of  money.  The  purchaser  demands  the  highest  known 
qualities  in  the  things  he  buys  of  the  farmer,  and  an  enlightened  self-interest 
must  compel  the  farmer  to  demand  the  highest  and  most  unfluctuating  and 
general  purchasing  power  in  the  money,  which  he  buys.  Never  before  in  the 
history  of  civilization  have  any  number  of  people  protested  against  being  paid 
more  than  a  certain  sum  for  commodities  which  they  have  to  sell.  But  to-day 
there  are  many  farmers  and  laborers  who  declare  themselves  in  favor  of  a 
system  of  coinage  which  shall  pay  them  only  16  ounces  of  silver  in  lieu  of  I 
ounce.of  gold.  Vehemently  these  people  are  declaring  everywhere  that  they 
will  be  absolutely  ruined  if  they  be  paid  in  more  than  16  ounces  of  silver  in- 
stead of  i  ounce  of  gold.  The  commercial  ratio  of  these  two  metals  to-day  is 
about  32  to  i;  that  is,  thirty -two  ounces  of  silver  will  buy  one  ounce  of  gold 
bullion.  The  reason  for  declaring  in  favor  of  a  mint  value  for  silver  which  is 
twice  its  bullion  value  is  inexplicable  upon  the  part  of  those  who  have  no  silver 
bullion  to  coin.  The  advocates  of  this  system  of  coining  silver  at  double  its 
commercial  value,  and  gold  on  an  equality  with  its  commercial  value,  declare 
themselves  to  be  bimetallists,  and  assert  that  they  are  in  favor  of  two  units  of 
value.  And  while  two  units  of  value  are  to  my  mind  unthinkable,  they  in 
their  statements  show  that  they  themselves  have  only  one  unit  of  value  and 
that  that  is  the  gold  unit.  Whoever  says,  "I  am  in  favor  of  the  free  and  un- 
limited coinage  of  silver  at  16  to  i,"  declares  himself  a  gold  monometallism 
The  sixteen  ounces  of  silver  he  proposes  to  measure  by  one  ounce  of  gold. 

THE  AU,EGED  CRIME  OF   1873. 

But  we  are  told  that  there  was  a  great  crime  committed  in  1873  in  the 
secret  demonetization  of  silver.  There  was  no  secret  demonetization  of  silver. 
The  bill  which  left  the  silver  dollar  out  of  the  coinage  provided  for  in  the  act 
of  1873  was  before  the -American  people  for  more  than  two  years.  The  debate 
upon  its  passage  in  the  House  and  in  the  Senate  occupies  several  columns  of 
the  Congressional  proceedings.  Up  to  the  time  of  this  alleged  demonetization 
of  silver  the  Government  had  during  its  entire  existence  coined  less  than  nine 
millions  of  silver  dollars.  Under  the  Bland-Allison  act  of  1873,  the  Govern- 
ment "authorized  the  coinage  of  the  standard  silver  dollar  and  restored  its 
legal  tender  character."  This  act  was  to  resuscitate  the  declining  value  of 
silver.  It  was  to  place  it  side  by  side  with  gold  as  part  of  the  redemption 
money  of  the  United  States.  Let  it  be  remembered  that  silver  had  been 
demonetized  by  the  act  of  1853,  and  that  the  legislation  of  1878  was  based  upon 
the  fallacy  that  silver  dollars  of  gold  value  could  be  substituted  for  depreciated 
paper.  The  silver  coined  before  this  enactment,  amounting  to  between  eight 
and  nine  millions  of  dollars,  had  long  before  disappeared  from  circulation. 

CAUSE  OF  THE  DECLINE  IN  SILVER. 

The  decline  in  the  value  of  silver  was  consequent  upon  its  increased  pro- 
duction, which  began  to  exceed  the  demand  for  its  use.  European  nations 
omitted  it  from  their  coinage  laws.  They  dropped  it  because  they  already  had 
as  much  silver  money  as  their  people  demanded.  They  dropped  it  because 
they  knew  that  no  amount  of  coining  of  this  metal  could  arrest  its  further 
decline  if  increased  production  continued.  They  dropped  it  because  they  were 
certain  that  depreciation  of  the  metal  would  debase  and  overthrow  their  cur- 
rency systems  if  they  continued  to  coin  it.  This  Bland- Allison  act  compelled 
the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  to  purchase  monthly  noteless  than  two  nor  more 
than  four  million  dollars  worth  of  silver  bullion,  to  be  immediately  coined  into 
silver  dollars  of  412^  grains  of  standard  silver;  that  is  371^  grains  of  fine 
metal,  and  these  dollars  when  so  coined  were  made  a  legal  tender  for  all  debts, 
public  and  private.  This  and  subsequent  acts  enabled  the  holder  of  silver  dol- 
lars to  deposit  them  with  the  Treasurer  of  the  United  States,  and  to  get  in  re- 
turn certificates  made  receivable  for  customs,  taxes  and  all  public  dues.  But 
the  Bland-AlKson  act,  instead  of  restoring  silver  to  its  old  value,  as  predicted, 
witnessed  a  decline  of  50  per  cent,  in  the  bullion  of  the  silver  dollar.  Prior  to 
the  congestion  of  monetary  channels  by  this  depreciated  silver,  the  United 
States  had  received  from  foreigners  during  thirteen  years  previous  over 
$260,000,000  of  gold.  As  early  as  1888  fears  were  expressed  in  Europe  that 
the  United  States  would  go  to  a  silver  standard.  Holders  of  securities  there 
became  afraid  that  they  would  be  redeemed  in  depreciated  silver,  and  began  to 
throw  back  these  securities  upon  the  American  market.  For  this  reason  be- 
tween 1888  and  1895  all  the  foreign  gold  payments  to  us  of  the  preceding 
thirteen  years  were  re-exported  from  the  United  States. 


OPERATION  OF  THE  GRESHAM   LAW, 

By  1890  we  had  more  than  378,000,000  of  Bland-Allison  dollars.  Now  it 
becomes  apparent  that  the  depreciated  purchasing  power  in  a  metallic  cur- 
rency is  as  much  to  be  lamented  and  as  vicious  as  depreciated  paper.  Secre- 
taries of  the  United  States  Treasury  wisely  restricted  the  coinage  under  the  act 
of  1878  to  2,000,000  per  month,  and  this  sum  was  sufficient  to  displace  the  gold 
circulation,  under  the  operation  of  the  Gresham  law,  which  is  simply  that  two 
metals  of  exchange  being  placed  in  the  field,  one  superior  to  the  other,  the 
inferior  holds  the  field,  and  the  better  money  is  hoarded  by  the  miser  or  carried 
away  b^  the  foreigner.  Bad  money  always  expels  good  money  from  the  chan- 
nels of  trade.  This  law  was  verified  during  the  American  Revolution  by  the 
depreciation  of  the  Continental  currency.  It  was  verified  here  in  Nebraska 
when  the  issues  of  the  Neman  a  Valley,  Fontanelle,  Omaha,  Platte  Vplley, 
Tekamah  and  other  wild-cat  banks  drove  out  all  the  sound  money  which  had 
been  in  circulation  in  the  Territory  prior  to  1857.  The  Bland-Allison  silver 
dollars  alluded  to  drove  out  that  many  gold  dollars  from  the  commerce  of  the 
United  States.  Then  the  act  of  July  14,  1890,  generally  called  the  Sherman 
act,  was  passed  by  the  silver  advocates  for  a  double  purpose.  The  first  was  to 
give  a  market  for  the  entire  silver  product  of  American  mines.  The  second 
was  to  increase  to  four  and  a  half  millions  per  month  the  volume  of  depreciated 
and  depreciating  money.  This  act  compelled  the  monthly  purchase  of  4, 500,000 
ounces  of  silver  bullion.  For  this  Treasury  notes  were  issued  and  forced  into 
circulation.  The  Treasury  notes  thus  created  were  made  a,  legal  tender  for 
all  debts,  public  and  private.  Government  officials  were  required  to  reissue 
them  when  paid  into  the  treasury.  Under  this  act  168,000,000  ounces  of  silver 
were  purchased.  For  that  bullion  156,000,000  of  new  Treasury  notes  were 
issued.  Thus  the  Bland-Allison  and  the  Sherman  act  prior  to  the  repeal  of  the 
later  in  November,  1893,  forced  into  circulation  in  the  United  States  $575, 000,000 
of  silver  and  silver  certificates. 

CAUSE  OF  DISTRUST  AND   COMMERCIAL  INEBRIETY. 

Thus  "  the  plain  people,"  "the  common  people,"  have  seen  driven  out 
at  the  command  of  silver  mine  owners  and  bullion  speculators  an  equal  amount 
of  gold  dollars,  better  dollars  than  those  which  these  two  acts  have  created. 
Thus  we  find  a  direct  cause  of  the  distrust,  lack  of  confidence  and  commercial 
inebriety  that  brought  upon  the  country  the  panic  of  1893.  And  yet  the  second 
section  of  the  Sherman  act  of  1890  requires  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  to 
redeem  the  notes  issued  for  silver  bullion  in  gold  or  silver,  expressly  declaring 
it  to  be  "the  established  policy  of  the  United  States  to  maintain  the  two  metals 
on  a  parity  with  each  other  upon  the  present  ratio,  or  upon  such  ratio  as  may 
be  provided  by  law."  And  before  the  issue  of  these  156,000,000  of  treasury 
notes  we  had  already  346,000,000  of  greenbacks  which  the  Government  was 
pledged  to  redeem  in  coin,  on  presentation,  and  to  make  this  redemption  cer- 
tain the  Secretary  was  authorized  to  issue  and  sell  Government  bonds;  and  by 
other  legislation,  in  1882,  he  is  required  to  keep  in  the  Treasury  a  reserve  fund 
of  $100,000,000  in  gold  with  which  to  redeem  them.  This  of  itself  is  an 
admission  that  it  was  the  purpose  and  intent  of  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  to  maintain  a  gold  standard,  and  to  pay  all  of  its  obligations  in  that 
metal  or  its  equivalent.  With  the  greenbacks  and  $575,000,000  of  silver  cur- 
rency we  had,  in  1893,  circulating  in  the  United  States  more  than  921,000,000  of 
promises  to  pay  dollars — of  paper  money — of  credit  money.  And  the  Govern- 
ment, by  its  laws  and  its  honor  was  pledged  to  keep  all  this  vast  volume  on  a 
parity  with  gold.  And  yet  the  gold  reserve  required  was  only  $100,000,000, 
and  that  insufficient  amount  has  been  constantly  maintained,  although  pur- 
chases have  been  made  again  and  again  for  the  purpose. 

COMMERCIAL  ILLS  FLOW  FROM  FALLACIES  IN  LEGISLATION. 
All  of  our  ills  in  finance,  it  seems  to  me,  come  from  the  fallacies  of  the 
foregoing  legislation.  There  was  gold  in  the  Treasury,  1889,  of  $194,000,000; 
in  January,  1890,  $177,000,000;  in  1891,  $141,000,000;  in  1892,  $119,000,000;  in 
1893,  $108,000,000;  in  January,  1894,  only  $65,000,000;  in  July,  1894,  $55,000,000, 
although  $52,000,000  had  been  borrowed  and  added  to  the  fund.  The  extent  of 
distrust  of  the  nation's  credit  is  illustrated  by  these  facts,  and  yet  the  excess  of 
our  exports  over  imports  in  1890  was  168  millions,  in  1891  it  \vas  nearly  40 
millions,  in  1892,  203  millions,  in  1894,  227  millions,  and  the  only  adverse  bal- 
ance we  had  any  year  was  one  of  18  millions  in  1893.  It  is  seen  that  while  we 
exported  an  excess  of  520  millions  of  products,  for  which,  under  normal  con- 
dition of  trade,  that  amount  should  have  been  returned  to  us,  -we  also  exported 
over  200  millions  of  gold. 

6 


WHO  WERE  THE   CONSPIRATORS  IX    1873? 

But  it  is  impossible  to  cover  the  whole  ground  in  a  single  desultory  speech. 
.Let  us  then  go  back  to  the  alleged  crime  of  1873.  Was  there  a  conspiracy  ?  If  so, 
who  were  the  conspirators.  They  were  the  genius  of  trade,  the  enterprise  of  the 
American  people,  and  the  intelligence  of  an  advanced  civilization.  The  flatboat 
in  which  I  crossed  the  Missouri  river  in  the  autumn  of  1854  was  by  a  conspiracy 
between  capital  and  human  ingenuity  de-ferryized  and  the  steamboat  took  its 
place.  [Applause.  ]  This  change  occurred  because  immigration  and  the  develop- 
ment of  the  territory  became  too  big  for  flatboats.  Later  on  a  conspiracy  again 
transpired  wherein  capital  and  civilization  combined  to  deferryize  the  steamboat, 
and  the  result  is  the  magnificent  steel  bridge  upon  which  your  trains  cross  every 
day.  A  second  time  the  prosperity  and  development  of  the  country  had  outgrown 
primitive  means  of  transportation.  If  it  was  a  crime  to  drop  silver,  a  cumber- 
some and  rapidly  depreciating  metal  from  redemption  money  because  the 
commerce  of  this  continent  had  outgrown  it,  is  there  not  a  crime  being  com- 
mitted against  the  farmer  by  this  conspiracy  which  depreciates  the  horse 
because  of  the  devaluation  of  that  animal  ?  -  Is  there  not  a  conspiracy  between 
the  trolley  car  builder,  the  tramway  railway  magnate  and  the  bicycle  manu- 
facturer to  depreciate  the  horse  ?  [Laughter.] 

A   FE\V  PRACTICAL  AND   PERTINENT  QUESTIONS. 

Is  it  not  time  to  declare  in  some  political  pronunciamento  that  a  horse 
shall  be  valued  in  Nebraska  at$i5o  without  regard  to  any  other  State  or  nation 
on  earth  ?  [Great  applause.]  And  if  this  Commonwealth  puts  horse  values  at 
$150  would  not  all  the  owners  of  horses  in  other  States  come  here  to  exchange 
them  for  whatever  salable  product  Nebraska  may  have  on  hand  ?  And  if  that 
would  follow  this  one  State  in  attempting  as  against  all  other  States  to  main- 
tain a  price  upon  horses  or  upon  corn,  will  not  a  similar  result  come  to  the 
United  States  if  it  attempts  to  fix  the  price  of  sixteen  ounces  of  silver  at  one 
ounce  of  gold  ?  Will  not  all  other  nations  who  hold  silver  to  be  worth  less 
than  that  dump  their  silver  into  the  United  States  ?  Will  not  the  free  coinage 
of  silver  at  16  to  i  bring  us  directly  to  silver  monometallism  ?  [Voice — That's 
what]  The  better  money  is  always  driven  out  by  the  poorer.  Therefore  the 
$650, 000,000  of  gold  coin  will  be  hoarded  or  carried  away  by  the  foreigner,  and 
all  the  Mints  of  the  United  States  running  night  and  day  cannot  coi n  $650,000, - 
oco  in  less  than  fourteen  years.  Thus  instead  of  increasing  the  circulating 
medium,  which  by  the  way  does  not  need  any  increase,  this  vast  sum  of  650 
millions  has  been  taken  from  the  circulation. 

•      ERROR  OF   FREE  COINAGE   ADVOCATES. 

But  we  are  told  that  the  West  and  the  South  demand  more  money.  That 
the  West  and  the  South  need  more  money  in  their  business.  An  error  of 
those  who  advocate  the  free  coinage  of  silver  at  16  to  I  seems  to  be  in  the  mis- 
use of  terms.  All  men  desire  more  money,  and  the  advocates  of  this  system 
of  coinage,  which  will  compel  a  gold  miner  to  delve  until  he  gets  100  cents' 
worth,  bullion  value,  of  this  yellow  metal  before  he  may  demand  the  coinage 
of  a  dollar,  and  at  the  same  time  permits  .the  miner  of  silver  in  -Colorado  to 
stop  work  and  demand  the  coinage  of  a  dollar  of  equal  purchasing  power  when 
he  has  only  taken  out  52  cents'  worth  of  bullion — confound  desire  with  de- 
mand. To  illustrate  :  You  and  I  may  go  into  some  vast  and  beautiful  gallery 
of  painting  and  see  some  of  the  masterpieces  of  the  best  artists  in  the  world, 
and  we  may  desire  one  or  more  of  them  to  embellish  our  own  homes,  but  the 
condition  of  our  exchequer  is  such  that  we  make  no  demand  for  any  picture. 
So  there  cannot  be  any  legitimate  demand  for  money  except  you  offer  some- 
thing valuable  in  exchange  for  it. 

INEXORABLE  LAW  OF  DEMAND  AND  SUPPLY. 

I  now  read  a  letter  addressed  to  the  citizens  of  Colorado,  May  I,  1895  : 
From  your  letter  of  April  22,  1895,  it  appears  that  you  and  I  perfectly 
agree  in  the  fundamental  point,  namely,  that  demand  and  supply  inexorably 
regulate  all  valuables  whatsoever  at  all  times  and  in  all  places.  At  what 
points  do  we  begin  to  separate  from  each  other  and  then  go  on  to  conclusions 
so  utterly  diverse?  These  points  are  only  two — the  first  historical  and  the 
second  logical. 

First.  You  assume  certain  propositions  to  be  true  of  silver,  which  are  not 
historically  true  at  all,  but  quite  the  reverse  of  true.  You  say,  for  instance, 
"  Until  1873  the  chief  use  of  silver  was  for  coinage.  It  had  other  uses,  but  the 


demand  for  coinage  purposes  was  steady  and  constant."  On  this  point  you 
have  been  monstrously  misinformed.  The  first  Federal  coins  of  silver  were 
minted  in  1794,  and  of  gold  in  1795.  Their  ratio,  as  recommended  by  Secre- 
tary Alexander  Hamilton,  and  fixed  by  act  of  Congress,  was  15  to  I.  It  was 
hoped  thus  to  keep  the  two  metals  in  equilibrio  in  the  coinage.  But  they 
would  not  even  come  into  equilibrio  at  that  ratio,  still  less  would  they  stay 
there.  That  was  not  the  true  ratio  of  their  relative  value  at  the  time  in  the 
markets  of  the  world  under  your  "inexorable  law  of  supply  and  demand,  " 
and  consequently  the  law  of  Alexander  Hamilton  and  the  National  Congress 
making  both  metals  full  and  equal  legal  tender  in  that  ratio  to  all  amounts  of 
debts  had  practically  110  effect  whatever  as  towards  the  end  in  view. 

TWO  UNITS   OF  VALUE  IMPOSSIBLE. 

This  law  legally  undervalued  gold  relatively  to  silver.  In  other  words,  an 
ounce  of  gold  was  worth  more  in  the  markets  than  fifteen  ounces  of  silver,  and 
accordingly  was  worth  more  out  of  the  coinage  than  in  it,  and  consequently 
was  exported  in  preference  to  silver,in  payment  of  foreign  balances,  especially 
after  France  changed  in  her  mint  the  relative  legal  value  to  15^  to  i.  Of 
course  gold  coins  refused  to  circulate  here  under  those  circumstances,  illus- 
trating another  "  inexorable  law  "  of  coinage,  namely,  that  the  cheaper  money 
would  push  the  dearer  out  of  circulation.  Well,  then  the  silver  dollars  ought 
to  have  been  plenty  enough  in  the  United  States  in  the  opening  years  of  this 
century.  But  they  were  not.  Why  not  ?  Because  clipped  and  worn  Spanish- 
Mexican  silver  pieces  had  slipped  into  the  circulation  in  large  amounts  and 
driven  out  the  good  and  new  and  full-weighted  American  silver  dollars  from  the 
hands  of  the  people  and  the  tills  of  the  trader. 

Only  321  silver  dollar  pieces  were  (joined  at  the  American  Mint  in  the  en- 
tire year  of  1805,  because  the  silver  was  worth  more  out  of  the  coinage  than  in 
it,  and  worth  more  for  export  than  for  domestic  money.  What  was  the 
matter  with  those  silver  dollars  !  Nothing,  only  they  were  too  valuable  ! 
May  i,  1806,  there  came  an  order  from  President  Jefferson  to  the  Director  of 
the  Mint  at  Philadelphia.  "  That  all  the.silver  to  be  coined  at  the  Mint  shall 
be  of  small  denominations,  so  that  the  value  of  the  largest  pieces  shall  not 
exceed  half  a  dollar."  The  reason  given  by  the  President  for  this  order  was 
"  that  considerable  purchases  have  been  made  of  dollars  coined  at  the  Mint  for 
the  purpose  of  exporting  them,  and  that  it  is  probable  that  further  purchases 
and  exportations  will  be  made."  The  coinage  of  silver  dollars,  thus  author- 
itatively suspended  at  the  American  Mint,  was  not  resumed  there  for  thirty 
years.  In  these  few  facts,  which  are  official  and  unquestionable,  behold  the 
beauties  and  advantages  of  the  double  standard  !  Of  the  unlimited  coinage  of 
both  metals,  in  an  enacted  and  constant  ratio  with  each  other  !  Of  two  yard- 
sticks of  different  length  to  measure  cloth  by  in  the  same  market ! 

WHY  THE  DOUBLE  STANDARD  WAS  ABANDONED. 

Not  until  1834  was  the  attention  of  Congress  drawn  strongly  enough  to  the 
wrong  ratio  of  Hamilton  and  its  ridiculous  effects  to  secure  a  law  ostensibly  to 
remedy  them.  By  this  law  the  ratio  was  substantially  put  at  16  to  i.  But 
this  was  going  to  far  in  the  opposite  direction.  Gold  was  not  worth  16  in 
silver  in  the  markets  of  Europe.  Consequently  the  international  current  of 
the  metals  was  now  for  a  time  reversed,  silver  passing  in  preference  abroad  to 
liquidate  the  balances  of  trade,  and  gold  coming  in  small  quantities  to  the 
United  States,  where  it  wras  more  than  3  per  cent,  dearer  in  silver  than  in 
Europe.  By  1853  the  immense  disadvantages  of  a  "double  standard"  had 
become  plain  to  all  thinking  people  that  Congress  wisely  determined  to 
abandon  the  utterly  futile  attempt  to  secure  the  "parity  "  of  the  two  metals, 
and  to  make  gold  the  legal  tender  for  debts  except  for  $5  and  under.  In  the 
second  place,  as  an  instance  of  an  historical  assumption  contrary  to  facts  and 
natural  inference,  allow  me  respectfully  to  call  your  attention  to  the  use,  in 
common  with  many  of  the  bimetallists,  so  called,  of  the  date  1873,  as  the  time 
of  the  "demonetization  of  silver."  Unless  I  am  mistaken  the  silver  dollar  is 
not  mentioned  at  all  one  way  or  the  other  in  the  act  of  1873. 

DEAD  WEIGHT  ON  THE  RESOURCES  OF  THE  PEOPLE. 

All  the  demonetization  of  silver,  as  I  understand  it,  that  ever  came  about 
in  this  country  happened  in  the  law  of  1853,  after  open  and  full  discussion  and 
practically  with  unanimity,  when  Congress  introduced  the  subsidiary  silver 
coinage,  of  which  a  nominal  dollar's  worth  weighed  6.91  per  cent,  less  than  the 
silver  dollar,  and  also  took  away  the  legal  tender  quality  of  all  silver  in  the 


Eayment  of  debts  of  over  $5  in  amount.  What  harm  these  two  features  of  the 
iw  of  1853  ever  did  I  have  never  been  able  to  see.  For  the  reasons  already 
given  silver  dollars  circulated  but  little  in  the  United  States  even  before  1853, 
and  between  that  date  and  1878  not  at  all,  when,  on  February  28,  a  law  was 
passed  requiring  them  to  be  coined  in  immense  numbers  at  the  old  rate  and 
ratio  to  gold  and  with  full  legal  tender  functions  ;  but  even  then  their  circula- 
tion was  sluggish  up  to  1883.  You  know  as  well  as  I  do  what  an  enormous 
pile  of  these  dollars,  born  out  of  due  time,  are  now  lying  idle  in  the  United 
States  Treasury,  nobody  willing  to  take  them — a  dead  weight  on  the  resources 
of  the  people. 

TWO   COMMON  I,OGICAI,  FALLACIES. 

( 2 )  You  employ  over  and  over  again  in  your  letter  the  two  most  common 
logical  fallacies  that  enter  into  the  speech  of  argumentative  men  everywhere, 
namely,  putting  cause  into  the  place  of  effect,  and  assuming  that,  because  one 
thing  happened  after  another  in  point  of  time,  therefore  it  was  the  result  of 
that  other.  Let  us  look  candidly  together  at  the  two  or  three  instances  of  this, 
taken  almost  at  random.  You  ask,  "What  creates  demand?"  and  answer 
"Use."  I  ask,  in  my  turn,  "What  creates  use?"  and  answer,  "Demand." 
Why  is  it  that  there  is  so  little  "use  "  of  silver  dollars  in  this  country  to-day, 
while  there  are  millions  upon  millions  of  them  lying  idle  ?  I  answer,  con- 
fidently, because  there  is  no  adequate  "demand"  for  them.  Have  you  not 
innocently,  but  badly,  mixed  up  "cause"  and  "effect"  in  this  case?  De- 
mand in  the  commercial  sense  is  nothing  but  desire  for  something  on  the  part 
of  one  man  coupled  with  his  willingness  to  pay  something  for  it  satisfactory  to 
another  who  owns  it.  Use  of  that  thing,  no  matter  what  it  is,  only  follows 
demand  for  it.  You  have  helplessly  put  the  cart  before  the  horse.  What  is  it 
that  hinders  the  unlimited  circulation  among  the  people  of  silver  dollars  here 
and  now  ?  There  are  such  dollars  enough  already  minted  to  put  four  or  five  of 
them  into  the  pocket  of  every  man,  woman  and  child  in  the  United  States. 
What  is  the  matter  with  them  that  they  do  not  get  there  ?  What  is  the  sense 
of  clamoring  still  for  "unlimited  coinage,"  when  the  Treasury  cannot  get  rid 
by  hook  or  by  crook  of  a  tithe  of  those  already  coined  and  lying  in  useless 
heaps  ?  They  are  well  minted,  of  just  weight,  nine-tenths  fine,  are  legal  tender 
for  all  debts,  and  bear  the  legend  "In  God  We  Trust."  What  ails  them?  I 
answer,  and  so  must  you,  on  reflection,  there  is  no  "demand"  for  them, 
and  therefore  no  "use  "  for  them.  What  more  can  the  law  do  for  them  ? 

CAUSE   FOR   CLOSING  THE  INDIA   MINTS. 

For  the  sake  of  the  "help  "  you  ask  for,  and  for  truth's  sake,  bear  with 
me  while  I  take  another  instance  of  the  same  confusion  in  your  letter.  You 
say  :  "In  1893  India  closed  her  mints  to  the  free  coinage  of  silver.  In  an 
instant  silver  dropped  from  84  cents  (or  thereabouts)  to  71  cents  per  ounce." 
Yes,  certainly.  But  what  made  silver  drop  to  84  cents?  It  could  not  have 
been  the  closing  of  the  mints  (a  logical  matter)  that  caused  the  discount  of  16 
per  cent,  before  the  mints  closed  or  thought  of  closing.  How  do  you  know 
but  that  the  same  causes  (intensified,  no  doubt,  by  a  public  and  legal  recogni- 
tion of  them)  which  brought  about  the  16  per  cent,  discount  brought  about 
afterwards  the  29  per  cent,  discount  ?  The  closing  of  the  mints  was  caused  by 
the  discount  on  silver,  and  not  the  discount  on  silver  by  the  closing  of  the 
mints.  If  keeping  the  mints  open  to  "unlimited  coinage  "  could  have  brought 
back  silver  to  par,  or  had  any  tendency  in  that  direction,  would  the  mints  have 
closed  at  all  ?  India  had  the  good  sense  to  see  that  the  more  minting  the  more 
discount.  I  believe  that  our  own  good  people,  you  included,  will  show  the  same 
good  sense  in  the  same  way.  Effects  are  not  causes,  nor  must  the  two  be  con- 
founded in  reasoning. 

OPERATION   AND   EFFECT  OF  THE  SHERMAN   LAW. 

With  one  more  instance,  Mr.  Cherry,  and  with  a  moment's  reference  to  an 
important  fact  not  mentioned  in  your  letter,  and  our  friendly  conference  is  over 
for  the  present.  You  say:  "When  the  Sherman  law  was  repealed,  it  (silver) 
fell  to  60  cents  an  ounce."  Yes,  again:  but  was  it  the  repeal  of  the  Sherman 
law,  or  the  operation  of  the  Sherman  law,  that  caused  the  startling  decline  in 
silver  as  compared  with  gold,  and  uprooted  always  and  everywhere  futile 
attempts  to  maintain  a  "parity"  between  the  two  metals,  induced  President 
Cleveland  to  call  a  special  session  of  Congress  in  order  to  repeal  the  law  and  so 
to  prevent  the  certain  further  decline  under  the  law,  and  also  induced  Senator 
Sherman  himself  (an  uncommonly  intelligent  financier)  to  insist  on  its  repeal? 


Causes  always  precede  effects,  and  effects  always  follow  causes  in  point  of  time; 
but  I  beg  you  beware  of  supposing  hereinafter  that  because  some  specified  thing 
comes  after  another  specified  thing  that  therefore  the  one  is  caused  by  the  other. 

FUNCTION  OF  BILLS  OF  CREDIT 

It  may  be  my  dear  sir,  that  in  your  study  of  finance  you  have  overlooked, 
in  whole  or  in  part,  the  momentous  fact  that  all  but  a  mere  fraction  of  the 
world's  commerce  is  mediated  by  instruments  of  credit  and  not  by  metallic 
money  at  all,  whether  gold  or  silver,  and  that  by  far  the  most  essential  sendee 
of  money,  in  this  age  of  the  world  is  to  furnish  a  steady  measure  (as  steady  as 
possible)  of  other  valuables,  and  so  help  to  exchange  them,  to  the  profit  of  both 
parties,  without  any  actual  use  of  a  mediating  money.  By  the  sale  of  interna- 
tional bills  of  exchange  at  all  great  ports  of  entry,  payments  in  foreign  trade 
are  practically  accomplished  without  the  use  of  any  money  at  all.  In  the 
wholesale  business  of  this  country,  by  means  of  checks  drawn  on  well-known 
banks  and  settled  through  the  clearing  houses,  not  far  from  97  per  cent,  of  all 
payments  are  effected  without  any  actual  use  of  coin.  Mr.  Bckels,  the  present 
comptroller  of  the  Currency,  has  made  it  probable,  by  careful  inquiries  instituted 
through  his  department,  that  about  50  percent,  of  the  retail  business  also  of  this 
country  is  achieved  by  means  of  checks  drawn  on  local  banks,  and  cleared  by 
the  banks  with  very  little  use  of  coin.  The  relative  employment  of  these  in- 
struments of  credit  is  constantly  increasing  through  the  multiplication  of  banks 
and  otherwise;  and  of  course  also  the  quantity  of  coin  money  required  to  do  the 
business  of  the  world,  or  of  any  advanced  country  iu  the  world,  is  steadily  de- 
creasing relatively  to  the  business  done." 

AN   ANSWER  TO  THE   "CLASS"   ARGUMENT. 

We  are  told  that  the  plutocrats,  or  money  lords,  of  the  country  are  endeav- 
oring to  crush  "the  plain  people,"  and  that  we  are  debtors  ground  under  the 
heel  of  the  Eastern  creditor.  But  the  truth  is  that  the  mortgage  indebtedness 
of  Nebraska  is  not  one-half  as  great  per  capita  as  the  mortgage  indebtedness  of 
the  State  of  New  York.  Is  it  probable  that  owners  of  money  are  endeavoring 
to  bring  about  a  state  of  affairs  which  shall  ruin  those  who  already  owe  them 
money  and  prevent  their  ever  recovering  their  loans?  We  are  told  that  the 
money  is  hoarded  viciously  in  the  great  money  centers  of  the  country.  And 
.  yet  money  is  the  one  thing  which  man  struggles  for,  which  never  confers  any 
benefit  upon  him  until  it  leaves  him.  If  all  the  owners  of  money  in  New  York 
should  gather  it  up  and  lock  it  up  it  would  be  of  no  more  advantage  to  them 
than  so  much  dust  and  ashes.  If  this  audience  were  given  all  the  gold  and 
silver  money  of  the  whole  globe,  upon  condition  that  they  never  should  part 
with  any  portion  of  it  but  hoard  it  fore*ver,  they  wrould  be  as  poor  as  the  inmates 
of  the  county  house.  [Applause.]  Is  it  probable  that  those  who  have  had  tact, 
industry  and  frugality  enough  to  accumulate  money  should  now  endeavor  to 
bring  the  country  to  a  condition  which  will  make  that  money  absolutely  valueless? 

RESULTS  THAT  WOULD  FOLLOW  FREE  COINAGE. 

In  the  discussion  of  finance  there  are  no  more  reasons  or  paroxysms  or 
hysterics  than  there  is  in  the  recitation  of  the  multiplication  or  addition  tables 
in  arithmetic.  As  Americans  we  should  demand  for  our  country  the  highest 
and  best  standard  of  value  known  to  modern  civilization.  [Applause.]  Mr. 
Irving  in  his  inimitable  history  of  the  colony  of  New  Amsterdam,  entitled 
"  Knickerbockers  of  New  York,"  describes  the  administration  of  the  irascible 
little  Dutch  Governor  known  as  "William  the  Testy,"  when  currency  became 
very  scarce.  It  was  clear  that  there  was  not  enough  per  capita  circulation;  that 
money  was  tight  and  that  times  were  exceedingly  hard,  but  that  astute  statesman 
observed  that  the  Indians,  by  whom  he  was  surrounded,  did  not  suffer  by  lack 
of  circulation,  but  that  they  used  periwinkle  shells  for  currency.  This  suggested 
the  issuance  of  a  proclamation  declaring  periwinkle  shells  to  be  a  legal  tender  in 
the  realm  of  New  Amsterdam  for  all  debts,  public  and  private.  [Laughter.] 
This  financial  panacea  was  proclaimed  officially.  It  was  read  in  another  tolony 
known  as  Connecticut,  inhabited  by  a  race  called  Yankees.  Immediately  these 
shrewd  Yankees  went  over  to  New  Amsterdam  and  bought  from  the  "simple 
Dutch  burghers  everything  portable  they  had  for  sale  from  smearcase  to  kraut 
and  cabbage  and  pipes,  and  left  them  knee  deep  in  currencv.  [Laughter.]  Not 
long  thereafter  the  Dutchmen  desired  an  antiscorbutic  food  and  despatched  one 
Anthony  Von  Corlear  to  Weathersfield  to  purchase  a  cargo  of  onions.  Arriving 
among  the  Yankees  and  agreeing  upon  the  price  of  onions  that  doughty  Dutch- 
man was  astonished  upon  being  informed  by  them  that  they  never  used 


periwinkle  currency  except  when  they  purchased  things  and  that  the}-  always 
demanded  good  "gelt  "    when  they  sold  things.     [Laughter  and  applause.] 

Our  friends  who  advocate  for  this  country  silver  monometallism  and  every 
man  who  declares  for  the  free  and  unlimited  coinage  of  silver  is  a  silver  inono- 
metallist — may  read  in  the  experience  of  the  Dutch  burghers  of  New  Amsterdam 
that  which  will  come  to  the  United  States  if  it  ever  gets  to  a  silver  basis.  Having 
established  silver  as  our  measure  of  value  and  medium  of  exchange,  all  who  buy 
of  us  wrill  pay  us  in  silver.  All  of  whom  we  buy  will  demand  of  us  gold  and  we 
will  pay  the  premium.  [Applause.] 

THE   EXAMPLE   OF   MEXICO. 

To-day  Mexico  is  on  a  silver  basis.  A  draft  on  New  York  is  worth  a 
premium  of  87  per  cent.  The  reason  of  this  premium  is  that  Mexico  must  pay 
the  difference  between  her  dollars,  not  floated  at  a  parity  with  gold,  and  our 
dollars  which,  up  to  this  time,  hold  at  that  parity  by  the  pledge  of  the  Govern- 
ment, by  the  action  of  the  present  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  and  by  the  courage 
of  Grover  Cleveland,  the  President  of  the  United  ^States.  [Applause  and 
cheers.]  Illustrative  of  this  money  fallacy  is  the  position  of  the  man  who 
\vorks,  who  sells  services  or  the  results  of  services.  Take  the  section  men  on 
the  Atchison  and  Topeka  road  who  live  and  work  respectively  in  Arizona  on  the 
American  side  and  in  Sonora,  in  the  Republic  of  Mexico,  upon  the  foreign 
extension  of  that  line  of  road.  The  American  section  hands  are  paid  $1.10  per 
day  in  our  currency,  and  after  you  cross  into  Mexico  on  the  same  road  the 
section  hands  are  paid  for  the  same  labor  each  one  Mexican  dollar  per  day. 
The  man  on  this  side  of  the  line  can  step  into  Mexico  and  buy  with  that  $1.10 
two  Mexican  dollars  and  have  two  cents  change  in  the  bargain.  [Laughter.] 
Briefly,  one  day's  work  on  the  American  side  of  the  line  buys  more  than  two 
days'  work  on  the  Mexican  side.  [Applause.]  In  Mexico  the  imports  are  all 
enhanced  in  value  because  the  importer  pays  a  sufficient  price  to  cover  the 
probable  fluctuations  of  silver  in  the  London  market,  and  exports  are  depreci- 
ated for  the  same  reason.  So  a  silver  country  is  between  the  upper  and  nether 
millstone.  The  imports  are  enhanced  and  its  exports  are  diminished  in  value, 

AX   AXIOM    IX   POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

A  maxim  which  is  almost  an  axiom  in  political  economy  is  found  in 
McLeod  and  reads  thus  :  "The  relation  of  supply  to  demand  is  the  sole 
regulator  of  value."  This  rule  is  inflexible,  inexorable  and  always  vigorously 
operative.  It  applies  to  salt,  starch,  silver,  gold,  soap,  horses  and  oats.  In 
fact  it  applies  to  every  salable  thing  on  the  face  of  the  civilized  globe,  and  this 
accounts  for  the  decline  in  the  commodity  value  of  silver.  The  ore  taken  out 
of  the  Comstock  lode  in  1876,  when  Nevada,  in  a  single  twelve  months, 
produced  more  silver  than  all  the  world  had  produced  in  the  twenty  previous 
years,  was  treated  at  a  cost  of  $90  per  ton  and  about  70  per  cent,  of  fine  silver 
was  saved ;  but  to-day  the  same  kind  of  ore  is  treated  for  $6  per  ton  and  quite 
90  per  cent,  of  fine  silver  secured.  Modern  methods  of  treating  ores  have 
increased  the  supply  of  silver  until  it  is  out  of  proportion  with  the  natural 
demand  for  silver  and  the  Bland-Allison  act  and  the  Sherman  act  sho\v  that 
artificial  demand  cannot  be  created  under  any  circumstances  so  as  to  uphold 
the  ancient  price  of  that  metal.  Neither  national  bimetallism,  as  it  is  termed 
by  the  United  States,  nor  bimetallism  agreed  to  by  all  the  civilized  powders  of 
the  earth,  can  fix  and  maintain  the  price  of  silver  in  gold  at  one  ounce  of  the 
latter  to  sixteen  ounces  of  the  former  when  it  is  exchanging  everywhere  as 
bullion  at  32  to  i.  [Applause.] 

PRICE   OF  SILVER   CAXXOT   BE   FIXED   BY   LA\V. 

The  United  States  can  ho  more  fix  the  gold  price  of  silver  by  itself  than 
this  State  can  fix  the  price  of  corn  by  itself.  If  Nebraska  should  declare  corn 
worth  thirty-five  cents  a  bushel,  and  pass  a  law  making  it  a  penal  offence  to 
sell  it  at  a  less  price,  would  not  all  the  corn  from  the  other  States  be  flooding 
our  market?  Then  as  to  an  international  agreement.  By  our  traditions  and 
the  practices  of  this  Government  we  are  prohibited  from  any  entanging  alliance 
which  such  an  international  convocation  would  create.  And  if  an  agreement 
as  to  the  ratio  between  gold  and  silver  \vas  reached,  who  would  enforce  the 
performance  of  the  implied  contract?  What  tribunal  is  there  or  can  there  be 
to  make  international  bimetallism  obligatory  upon  any  of  the  nations  who 
enter  into  the  compact?  But  over  and  above  all  this  comes  the  solemn,  solid 
fact  that  the  relation  of  supply  to  demand  is  the  sole  regulator  of  value  and 

ii 


that  national  or  international  edicts  can  neither  mitigate  nor  repeal  that  fact. 
If  by  international  agreement  the  price  of  silver  may  be  fixed  in  gold,  then  why 
cannot  the  price  of  all  staple  commodities  also  be  made  permanent  by  inter- 
national agreement  ?  Why  cannot  beef,  pork,  wheat,  all  cereals  be  fixed  as  to 
permanent  prices  by  a  great  international  conference  just  as  well  as  can  be 
fixed  the  price  of  any  metal  ?  If  this  power  of  fixing  a  permanent  value  in 
gold  exists  in  an  international  congress,  the  power  likewise  the  price  of  all 
commodities  must  exist  in  the  same  body.  And  the  price  of  commodities, 
realty  and  personalty,  being  made  permanent  all  the  "world  over  by  inter- 
national agreement,  have  we  not  avoided  for  all  time  to  come  the  possibility  of 
panics  ?  Panics  are  brought  about  by  declines  and  rises  in  value  and  if  prices 
can  be  made  stationary  there  can  be  no  panics.  But  the  farmer  who  attempts 
to  plow  his  ground  by  preamble,  to  harrow  and  plant  by  resolution  and  to  har- 
vest abundant  crops  by  oratory  will  be  just  as  successful  and  prosperous  as  the 
nation  which  attempts  to  base  its  commerce  on  the  theory  that  values  can  be 
created  by  statute.  [Applause.] 

Congress  may  talk,  and  talk,  and  talk, 

And  talk  the  livelong  day  ; 
But  it  cannot  make  a  dollar  out  of  50  cents, 

For  a  dollar  isn't  built  that  way. 

[Continued  applause  and  cheering.] 

CONDITION    OF  THE   AMERICAN    FARMER. 

Will  the  advocate  of  the  free  coinage  of  silver  at  16  to  I  tell  us  how  the 
silver  standard  can  benefit  both  the  producer  and  consumer,  farm  products, 
and  simultaneously  raise  the  value  of  silver  for  the  mine  owner  and  lower  the 
value  of  the  dollar  for  the  debtor  ?  The  debtor  class  is  not  made  up  of  farmers, 
mechanics  and  laborers.  Briefly,  the  condition  of  the  American  farmer  is 
shown  by  the  fact  that  lie  owns  4,564,641  farms  valued  at  more  than  thirteen 
billions  of  dollars  in  the  aggregate  and  at  an  average  of  $2909  each.  The 
household  of  the  farmer  averages  six  persons.  The  rural  population  of  the 
United  States  last  year  fed  the  urban  population,  furnishing  them  cereals, 
meats,  vegetables,  fruits,  eggs,  milk,  butter,  cheese  and  poultry.  This  urban 
population  is  fifty-eight  per  cent,  of  all  the  people  of  the  United  States.  Thus 
it  is  seen  that  the  forty -two  per  cent,  who  live  upon  farms,  after  feeding  and 
clothing  themselves,  fed  more  than  40,000,000  of  the  denizens  of  villages  and 
cities.  They  did  not  furnish  the  food  gratuitously,  and  they  will  not  furnish  it 
at  a  loss.  During  the  same  year  the  United  States  exported  in  products  and 
domestic  commodities  and  merchandise  a  valuation  of  1793,000,000.  The 
value  of  the  agricultural  products  included  in  that  sum  was  $553,215,317.  It 
is  seen  by  the  above  that  the  American  farmer  fed  himself  and  clothed  his 
family,  then  fed  all  the  village  and  city  population  of  the  Union,  and  after  that 
sold  in  the  world's  markets  more  than  $500,000,000  worth  of  surplus  products. 
How,  then,  can  the  42  per  cent,  of  the  people  of  the  United  States,  which 
feeds  the  remaining  58  per  cent,  and  then  furnishes  more  than  69  per  cent,  of 
the  total  exports  of  the  country,  be  making  less  profits  than  those  whom  they 
fed  when  the  latter  supply  only  31  per  cent,  of  American  exports. 

WALKING  DELEGATES  FARM  THE  FARMERS. 

In  1882  an  amendment  to  the  constitution  of  the  State  of  Nebraska, 
providing  for  female  suffrage,  was  submitted  to  the  voters.  The  campaign 
opened  with  Susan  B.  Anthony,  Elizabeth  Cady  Stan  ton,  Mrs.  Gougar  and 
other  distinguished  orators  of  the  opposite  sex.  It  was  my  fortune  to  have 
a  seat  in  a  car  with  Miss  Anthony  from  Omaha  to  Tekamah.  During  the 
journey  she  turned  to  me  with  great  earnestness  % and  said:  "There  are 
many  excellent  and  competent  women  holding  and  managing  property  and 
paying  taxes  in  Nebraska ;  how  do  they  feel  as  to  the  oppression  and 
degradation  which  they  suffer?"  My  answer  was  that  they  were  just 
beginning  to  weep  and  sob  since  they  heard  from  her  and  other  ladies  how 
badly  they  were  abused,  but  that,  until  the  light  of  their  genius  and  elo- 
quence was  turned  on  in  this  State,  they  had  never  perceived  the  suffering 
which  now  seems  to  be  so  excruciating.  [Applause.]  So  the  farmers  of  the 
United  States,  who  owe  less  and  own  more  of  real  value  than  any  other 
class,  in  proportion  to  their  numbers,  never  realized  that  farming  was  so 
unprofitable  ;  that  life  in  the  country  was  so  laborious,  unsatisfactory,  and 
almost  unendurable,  until  they  heard  from  that  class  of  walking  _  delegates 
who  farm,  the  farmers,  plough  dollars  out  of  the  pockets  of  plain  people 

12 


and  subsist  upon  the  C.  O.  D.  style  of  oratory,  which  is  made  up  of  sixteen 
parts  wind  to  one  part  of  common  sense.  [Great  applause,  continued 
cheering.] 

BANKERS  THE  GREAT  DEBTOR  CLASS. 

The  farfns  of  the  United  States  carry  a  mortgage  indebtedness  on  their 
total  valuation  of  16  per  cent.,^ncl  railroads  carry  a  mortgage  indebtedness 
of  46  per  cent,  upon  their  valuation.  In-  the  year  1895,  as  shown  by  the 
report  of  the  Comptroller  of  the  Currency,  the  national  banks  of  this  country 
owed  depositors  $1,719,597, 91 i-33-  At  the  same  time  State  and  private 
banks,  loan  and  trust  companies  owed  their  depositors  $3,185,245,810.  Thus 
it  is  seen  that  the  bankers  of  1895,  as  they  are  in  1896,  were  the  great 
debtor  class,  and  that  they  owe  an  aggregate  to  the  people  of  $4,904,843,- 
721.33.  Do  you  desire  them  to  pay  this  indebtedness  in  dollars  which, 
being  tested  by  fire,  melted  into  bullion,  will  be  less  than  50  cents  each  ?  Do 
you  whose  lives,  like  my  own,  have  been  insured  for  more  than  thirty  years, 
desire  death  to  come  to  you  with  the  country  on  a  silver  basis,  and  then  have 
the  matured  policies  aggregate  a  less  purchasing  power  than  the  premiums 
which  you  have  paid  ?  [Applause.] 

FREE  COINAGE  A  GRATUITY   FOR  MINE  OWNERS. 

If  the  free  and  unlimited  coinage  of  silver  begins  then  the  coinage  of  412^ 
grain  dollars  is  not  by  the  Government,  and  for  the  Government,  but  a  gratuity 
for  those  who  own  silver  bullion.  Why,  after  that  period  is  reached,  should 
the  Government  attempt  to  maintain  the  parity  between  silver  and  gold  at  the 
ratio  of  16  to  i,  or  at  any  other  ratio?  What  direct  interest  will  the  Govern- 
ment have  in  maintaining  the  purchasing  power  of  silver  at  an  equality  with 
that  of  gold.  In  this  connection  the  attention  of  those  opposed  to  high  protec- 
tive tariff,  and  wrho  sometimes  declaim  for  the  free  coinage  of  silver  at  i6to  i 
[applause]  is  called  to  the  fact  that  they  are  thus  advocating  protective  duties 
to  which  those  of  the  Merrill  and  McKinley  tariff  are  as  naught.  By  United 
States,  statute  Section  25,  Chapter  349,  second  session  of  the  Fifty-third  Con- 
gress, it  will  be  seen  that  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  is  required  to  proclaim 
the  value  of  all  foreign  coins  in  American  currency  at  the  beginning  of  each 
quarter  of  each  fiscal  year. 

IMPORT  DUTIES  WOULD   BE  DOUBLED. 

Furthermore,  it  will  be  observed  that  all  dutiable  imports  to  the  United 
States  must  be  estimated,  as  to  their  monetary  value,  in  American  currency, 
and  the  duties  are  imposed  upon  this  latter  valuation.  To-day  the  English 
pound  is  valued  at  $4.86,  and  we  are  on  a  gold  basis ;  that  is,  if  you  import 
£roo  worth  of  goods  you  will  pay  duty  on  a  value  o"f  $486  worth.  The  duty 
being  ad  valorem  at,  say  40  per  cent,  on  the  particular  articles  which  you  bring 
in,  you  can  easily  figure  the  amount  of  customs  dues  which  you  must  pay.  By 
going  to  silver  monometallism,  the  English  pound  will  be  worth  in  American 
silver,  $9.72.  Therefore,  importing  £100,  when  you  are  on  a  silver  basis,  you 
will  double  the  amount  of  customs  dues  which  you  must  pay.  For  instead  of 
$486  worth  on  a  gold  basis  you  have  upon  a  silver  basis  imported  $972  worth 
of  merchandise.  If  the  duty  originally  was  40  per  cent,  you  have,  by  going 
to  a  silver  basis,  made  it  80  per  cent.  Is  there  any  advocate  of  the  protective 
system  who,  by  any  device  of  legislation,  can  double  tariff  dues  as  quickly  as 
the  free  and  unlimited  coinage  of  silver  at  16  to  i  ?  [Applause.] 

SOCIALISM,    FANATICISM  AND  DISHONESTY. 

This  Republic  is  not  a  Judas  Iscariot  among  civilized  nations.  It  refuses 
to  betray  honest  dealings.  It  scorns  even  30,000,000  times  thirty  pieces  of 
silver,  and  is  compelled  by  its  judgment  and  its  conscience  to  reject  the  impor- 
tunities of  those  who  would  deliver  the  safety  and  perpetuity  of  this  nation  into 
the  hands  of  socialism,  zealotry,  fanaticism  and  dishonesty.  It  ignores  and 
scorns  all  those  who  would  applaud  and  jeer  at  the  crucifixion  of  the  credit 
of  our  Government,  which  has  been  (and  God  grant  that  it  may  continue  to 
be)  the  saviour  of  civil  and  religious  liberty,  the  friend  and  the  asylum  of  the 
poor  and  oppressed  of  all  nations.  [Great  applause  and  cheering.] 


The  LEDGER  Publishes  all  the  News. 

[From  the  PUBLIC_  LEDGER  of  August  19,  1896.] 

In  reply  "to  a  complaining  friend,"  who  thinks  we  give  too  much 
space  to  the  sayings  and  doings  of  Mr.  Bryan  and  the  silver  party,  thg 
Ledger  is  obliged  to  say  that  in  respect  to  its  publication  of  the  political 
news,  it  cannot  stop  to  consider  whether  it  is  Republican  or  Populist- 
Democratic  news;  all  it  can  do  consistently  with  its  understanding  of 
its  duty  to  the  public  is  to  ascertain  if  the  news  be  authentic,  and  if  it 
be  of  such  public  interest  as  to  warrant  its  publication.  The  Ledger 
cannot  suppress  news  merely  because  it  does  not  agree  with  its  own 
opinions;  these  latter  will  be  found  distinctly  set  forth  in  our  editorial 
columns,  not  in  our  news  columns.  The  present  political  campaign  is> 
one  of  the  most  important,  momentous,  and  interesting  of  any  since 
the  close  of  the  War  of  the  Rebellion.  Appreciating  that  fact,  the 
Ledger  has  made  arrangements  to  secure  all  news  of  value  growing 
out  of  it;  not  only  Republican,  but  Populist-Democratic,  as  well  as 
Sound,  Honest  Money  Democratic  news.  The  Ledger  proposes  to  be 
a  faithful,  exhaustive  daily  chronicler  of  the  events  of  the  presidential 
campaign,  and  to  be  absolutely  fair  in  the  collection,  editing  and  pre- 
sentation of  the  news.  The  truth  will  not  hurt,  but  help  the  cause 
that  is  right,  which  in  this  instance  is  the  cause  of  national  honor,  of 
sound,  stable  money.  The  Ledger  is  not  a  political  organ;  it  is  a 
newspaper,  and  it  will  irom  now  until  the  day  of  election  make  its  news 
columns  an  epitome  of  the  principal  events  and  conduct  of  the  contest. 
While  doing  that  fairly  and  fully,  it  will  frankly  and  explicitly  declare, 
in  the  proper  place,  its  convictions  in  favor  of  an  honest,  sound 
national  financial  policy. 


' c A  Subscriber ' '  has  handed  us  an  advertisement  of  the  Exchange 
Hotel,  in  Raleigh,  N.  C. ,  which  was  issued  during  the  War  of  the 
Rebellion,  and  which  we  reproduce  on  another  page.  It  is  curiously 
and  somewhat  roughly  printed,  but  the  important  point  is  seen  at  the 
bottom,  where  occurs  the  following: 

RATES  OF  BOARD. 

Per  day,  either  in  Bacon    >- .    « 10  Ibs. 

Per  (Jay,  either  in  Lard 10  Ibs. 

Per  day,  either  in  Butter 6  Ibs. 

Per  day',  either  in  Flour 30  Ibs. 

Per  day,  either  in  Currency $40.00 

Single  Meal  or  Lodging $10.00 

The  last  two  items,  for  board  per  day  in  currency,  and  for  single 
meal  or  lodging,  are  entered  in  lead  pencil,  the  currency  fluctuating 
so  that  it  was  impossible  to  have  this  printed,  which  shows  what  a 
great  advantage  a  flexible  currency  must  be.  Some  indication  of  what 
may  be  the  result  of  the  5o-cent  dollar  may  be  found  in  the  illus- 
tration on  the  following  page  of  the  effects  of  cheap  money  of  the 
Confederacy : 

14 


A  CHEAP  MONEY  OBJECT  LESSON. 


[From  the  PUBLIC  LEDGER  of  September  10,  1896.] 

.      ..-..         * 


EXCHANGE  HC 

SILX.SBGRO'  STBEBT. 

R  ALEX 


G  UESTS  should  register  their  names  be- 
fore being  assigned  tu  rooms. 

FU I  As  IJOARD  will  be  charged  until  the 
room  is  vacated  and  settlement  fftatle. 

PERSOXS  having  no  baggage  must  pay 
in  advance. 

U  UESTS  inviting  o/hers  to  eat  with  them 
shouid  rrport  them  at  the  office. 

Ft7  LL.BOA ttD  charged  for  children  oc- 
cupying sY'tits  *t  the  first  table. 

For  all  MEAL  sent  to  ROOMS  or  out  of 
:t jhe.  fifty  per  cent  extra  will  bfc  charged. 

REGULAR  BOARDERS  are  required 
to  p  ly  in  advance. 

The  Proprietor  will  not  be  responsible 
for  Monoy,  Valuables  or  Baggage,  unless 
specially  deposited  for  safekeeping. 

GUESTS  will  please  report  at  the  of. 
ficc,  any  neglect  or  inattentton  of  servants. 

KATES  OF  BOARD* 

Per,  Day,  either  in  Bacon     •     • 


4*   Butter,  > 
"   Flour.  •    ^ 
"  Cbrrencr, 
Single  Meal  or  Lodging,    -    <• 


•• 


10  libs 
10   « 

6  « 
80  « 


Breakfast  -^  —  DmnrT-/Jbr....  TM 


W.H.CDKlNGGIMt 

PaOFRIBTOR. 

-Clerk. 


THE  PHILADELPHIA 

PUBLIC  LEDGER 

Is  the  Great  Family  Newspaper 
of  Pennsylvania. 


Its  Recognized  Reliability, 

carefully  compiled  and  well-arranged  departments, 
together  with  its  high  tone,  make  it  essentially 
the  Paper  for^  the  Home. 

The  Department  of  State  News 

in  the  PUBLIC  LEDGER  is  superior  to  that  of  any 
paper  published  in  the  State. 

• 
The  Public  Ledger 

sent  to  any  address  for  50  cents  per  month,  daily. 
$1.00  per  year  for  the  Saturday  (weekly)  edition. 

Send  $1.00  for  2  -Months'  Subscription 

and  get  all  the  news,  if  it  is  news,  of  all  the 
political  parties,  during  the  present  campaign; 
faithfully  chronicled. 


Address : 


THE  PUBLIC  LEDGER, 

Philadelphia,  Pa. 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW 

AN  INITIAL  FINE  OF  25  CENTS 

WILL  BE  ASSESSED  FOR  FAILURE  TO  RETURN 
THIS  BOOK  ON  THE  DATE  DUE.  THE  PENALTY 
WILL  INCREASE  TO  5O  CENTS  ON  THE  FOURTH 
DAY  AND  TO  $1.OO  ON  THE  SEVENTH  DAY 
OVERDUE. 


LD  21-100m-12,'43  (8796s) 


Pamphlet 
Binder 

Gaylord  Bros.,  Inc. 

Stockton,  Calif. 
T.M.  Reg.  U.S.  Pat.  Off. 


1*26251 


Ms 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


